For the first time since 1996, 19 years ago, the Florida Panthers will play in the Stanley Cup Finals. Hopefully they don't get swept this time.

But first: the Eastern Conference Finals. Florida (8) battled Pittsburgh (4) for the privilege of playing the the Stanley Cup Finals. The Pittsburgh Penguins team includes many skilled offensive players such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Jonathan Drouin, and James Neal. The Panthers are one of the best defensive teams in the league and are fantastic on the penalty kill. So, how many goals did those five players score for the Penguins in this series?

That one goal was scored by Sidney Crosby in game two, and it came on the powerplay. Malkin, Drouin, Neal, and Letang were all held off the scoreboard in this series as the Panthers shut them down. In total Pittsburgh scored only 8 goals all series long.

Columbus, the defending Stanley Cup Champions from last season, came out on top of the Western Conference again this year and will face the Panthers in the Finals. Florida is looking to become the second 8th seed in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup. The Los Angeles Kings were the first team to do it in 2012.

Dallas remains as one of the prime sellers at the deadline for the fourth year in a row, this time shipping out arguably their most talented player in Jamie Benn and their leading scorer Scott Glennie for 2nd and 3rd round draft picks. Given the market in which an over-the-hill Antoine Vermette garnered a 1st round pick from Pittsburgh, Dallas' GM has come under heavy scrutiny for trading much more talented and much younger talent for far less return.

The Edmonton Oilers continue to re-tool their defense at the expense of top prospect Zach Fucale and 3rd line center Tyler Pitlick. The trade, just days before the deadline, allowed them to acquire veteran defender Mark Giordano from the Sharks. The Oilers, currently hovering around the .500 mark at the deadline, were 13th in the Western Conference as of yesterday and will need to make serious strides if they hope to salvage yet another disappointing season.

Meanwhile, the Canucks continued working towards their rebuild by trading underperforming power forward Zack Kassian to the Rangers for their 1st rounder. Kassian never managed to put it together in Vancouver despite top 6 minutes over the past few seasons, usually putting up 20-point seasons. The Canucks traded long-time fan favourite Alex Burrows to Washington prior to the start of the season for Washington's 2020 1st rounder. The additional pair of firsts should help the Canucks get back on track when veterans such as Henrik Sedin and Dan Hamhuis decide to retire, which will likely be sooner rather than later.

In Blue Jackets news, the team is still trying to get over it's 9-2 defeat at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night. Both goaltenders were lit up with Bobrovsky taking the brunt of it, giving up 6 goals on 14 shots before getting the hook. Despite heavy criticism for the loss, the Blue Jackets remain in the playoff race, currently holding the 6-spot in the Western Conference although the conference is pretty tight with only a single point separating them from the 9th place Nashville Predators, although the Blue Jackets hold a game in hand.

I know this says NHL 13 Dynasty Thread, but I can't stand 13. Hope it's alright if I post a beagm from 12 I just started.

I decided to do a beagm with the Hamilton Tigers, a custom team. I replaced the Florida Panthers with them. However, I did not take any Panthers players, instead eliminating them from the game entirely (lets just say they went to Europe). I wanted to do a modern day expansion draft, so I made up a pool of players from the other 28 NHL teams. After picking the roster I wanted, here are your Hamilton Tigers!

A respectable team, right? Haha, this will be a long season. I think it will be a fun experience though! Ericsson is there because for the Wings it was either him or Jakub Kindl, so I thought they would protect the younger guy, as they already have a solid 'D'.

"Some people dream of success, while others wake up and work hard for it. Some people succeed because they are destined to, but most people succeed because they are determined to."
~ Ron MacLean, signing off at the end of the final HNIC episode of 2014-15.

People often say that defense wins championships.
The Florida Panthers have proved it.

They've also proved that you just need to get hot at the right time. The Panthers have a story similar to the 2012 Los Angeles Kings - both were 8th seeds who won the cup. Both teams struggled offensively the whole regular season but were able to sneak into the playoffs by going on a streak at the end of the year. After Florida shipped out Dmitry Kulikov, and acquired Bobby Ryan and Danny DeKeyser, they went on an amazing 14-4 run down the stretch, and won all of their last 10 games.

The Panthers had to beat the best teams all the way throughout the playoffs. They had no easy series. First they defeated 1st-seeded Philadelphia in 7 game, then 2nd-seeded Toronto, also in seven games. In the Eastern Conference Finals, it took the Panthers 6 games to defeat the 4th-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins. Ironically their shortest series came in the Stanley Cup Finals, against last year's defending champions, the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Once again, the Panthers did not let their opponents score often. Columbus was only able to score 7 goals in 5 games. Throughout the whole playoffs, the Panthers had a goals against per game of 1.60.

Panthers goaltender Jacob Markstrom was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for MVP of the playoffs. He posted a record of 16-7-2, a 1.56 GAA, a .946 save percentage, and 4 shutouts. In 25 games, Jonathan Huberdeau led the team with 19 points. Bobby Ryan and Kris Versteeg were just behind him with 18 points each. Tomas Fleischmann scored 17, Nick Bjugstad scored 16, and Stephen Weiss scored 14.

I created him before the roster update. Started him at 74 overall and has 4.5 yellow stars. A bit generous but I don't care. It doesn't look like he's going to get much higher than 87/88 at the most anyway.

I know this says NHL 13 Dynasty Thread, but I can't stand 13. Hope it's alright if I post a beagm from 12 I just started.

I decided to do a beagm with the Hamilton Tigers, a custom team. I replaced the Florida Panthers with them. However, I did not take any Panthers players, instead eliminating them from the game entirely (lets just say they went to Europe). I wanted to do a modern day expansion draft, so I made up a pool of players from the other 28 NHL teams. After picking the roster I wanted, here are your Hamilton Tigers!

A respectable team, right? Haha, this will be a long season. I think it will be a fun experience though! Ericsson is there because for the Wings it was either him or Jakub Kindl, so I thought they would protect the younger guy, as they already have a solid 'D'.

Thoughts? Does this look like a legitimate expansion squad?

I've done this type of thing before, and it took me around three seasons before I came out of the basement. It's a lot of fun, especially if you make some rules around it.

And yes, it does look like a legitimate expansion team. All of the players are 3-4th liners or bottom 6 defenders.

At 4:35 PM in New Jersey, GM Flamesrule came to the podium and said these choice of words: "With the 25th overall pick, I am very happy to select Prince Albert Raiders defenseman, Josh Morrissey." When he said those words, the crowd erupted with happiness. "I am extremely happy that I was selected by the Sharks", says Morrissey. "I have always liked the Sharks and am ecstatic that I can help the Sharks organization. I may not help now, but within a few years I hope to be a factor for the team." With the Sharks 2nd round draft pick, they selected centerman Ryan Kujawinski, who has a big body and who has a big upside. "With this pick, we felt Kujawinski was the right choice. He fits in perfectly with the Sharks, and I feel he may have been the steal of the draft", explained GM Flamesrule.

During the draft, the San Jose Sharks made a trade with the Colorado Avalanche. It sent goaltender Annti Niemi and a 2014 2nd round draft pick for Colorado Avalanche's 2014 1st round draft pick. "We felt this was a win-win for both teams. The Avalanche receive a 1B goaltender who can be the backup for Varlamov and we get a draft pick. Since we need to re-sign James Sheppard and Jason Demers, we needed the cap space and this trade does it. Hopefully."

This year, the firm Fedorov&Kozlov once again misses the playoffs, but there is room for improvement as the expectations were met aswell as to more wins than last year. Unfortunately the biggest problem was that the first-line doesn't produce like a first-line should and therefore there less goals than needed, but still a improvement in that department since last year aswell. The biggest problem was the amount of goals the team let in, 11th worst team in the league and as long as it's at that amount we will never get into the playoffs.

Fedorov told the media that Buffalo for this year isn't satisfied with the team missing playoffs but there is still a lot of young guys who can improve a lot. Therefore it's not a clear tactic from the GM to decide on a certain type of player but instead Fedorov said he will pick the best one available, could use some speed though said Fedorov wincing his eyebrow.

Rochester made their playoffs but got knocked out in the first round. Juuso Ikonen had an impressive first season in the AHL with 45 points, second best in the team. The team-leader was Johan Larsson with 50 and he will be given a chance at the NHL-team next season said coach Kozlov.

Sabres Stats

Player

Games

Goals

Assists

Points

Nathan Gerbe

59

17

35

52

Tyler Ennis

82

29

19

48

Thomas Vanek

81

25

21

46

Drew Stafford

73

19

25

44

Andrej Sekera

82

5

35

40

Christian Ehrhoff

82

10

28

38

Tyler Myers

74

7

27

34

Mikhail Grigorenko

79

13

21

34

Cody Hodgson

70

9

22

31

Alex Biega

67

4

17

21

Ville Leino

80

6

13

19

Mike Weber

72

1

17

18

Marcus Foligno

82

10

5

15

Luke Adam

77

5

9

14

Kevin Sundher

37

6

7

13

Steve Ott

82

8

4

12

Jacob Lagace

72

5

6

11

Patrick Kaleta

82

8

2

10

Brayden McNabb

71

0

5

5

Kevin Porter

23

3

2

5

Adam Pardy

36

2

1

3

Cody McCormick

5

0

2

2

Matt Ellis

1

1

0

1

Matt Mackenzie

2

1

0

1

Nick Crawford

6

0

0

0

Name

Games

Wins

Shutouts

Ryan Miller

56

26

4

Jhonas Enroth

30

12

1

Andrei Makarov

1

0

0

Gerbe had an impressive season as nearly being a PPG-player. It was also clear that the second line was the best line on the team and i didn't want to break them up in favor of getting up Gerbe on the first-line. Vanek still makes goals but need to start making assists aswell to still be considered a first-line player. Ennis is definetly improving and was the best goalscorer on the team this season, nearly breaking the 30-goal wall. Grigorenko is still young and needs first-line minutes to improve his skills, i believe. I will let Leino go and lets see who else that doesn't get a contract extension as i want Sundher, Larsson and possibly Armia on the team next season.

The Hockey State, Minnesota finally won the Stanley Cup after beating stacked Eastern Team Carolina Hurricanes in the finals 4-3. It was a real suprise that Minnesota won it considering they were seeded 7th and was under 2-0 after two games in the SC-final. The winner's of the President's Trophy was Toronto actually, breaking Vancouvers streak. New York Islander's John Tavares had 96 points and won the Art Ross Trophy for most points during the season, he also got the MVP award for that, making it his first Hart Memorial Trophy. Best defender of the league was Toronto's Dion Phaneuf while Tampa Bay's russian winger Nikita Kucherov won the best rookie award after an impressive 60 point season. The playoff's most important player was the finnish goaltender Niklas Backstrom who plays for Minnesota Wild, but although he was the best player in the playoffs he didn't win the best goaltender award as it went to Toronto's James Reimer. Detroit's Datsyuk is yet again the best defensive forward aswell as another russian, Alexander Ovechkin continues his winning-streak by scoring 46 goals and win the scorers trophy, Maurice Richard.

1 point. That's all the Columbus Blue Jackets needed to get in their season finale to advance to the playoffs. Unfortunately, their division rival wasn't planning to make it easy for them to get in, especially goaltender Jaroslav Halak, who made 33 saves to secure a Blues victory that allowed the Colorado Avalanche to hold onto the final playoff spot.

Chris Stewart scored a pair in the second period to give the Blues a 2-0 lead heading into the final frame. The power forward played the part, banging home a rebound and deflecting a point shot past Sergei Bobrovsky in addition to laying out 7 hits throughout the game. The Blue Jackets pushed the pace in the third, generating several good scoring chances before finally getting rewarded with a Jonathan Audy-Marchessault deflection past Halak with just under 5 minutes to play.

Ryan Johansen would take a hooking penalty on the next shift which may have saved a goal, but put the Blue Jackets on the defensive for a couple of minutes when the clock was already working against them. They managed to kill off the penalty and got Bobrovsky out of the net with about 30 seconds remaining. St. Louis won the faceoff, sending the puck up the boards to Chris Stewart who got leveled by Ryan Murray just before he could exit the zone. Derick Brassard gained possession of the puck and quickly passed it over to David Savard, who launched a slap shot wide of the goal. Unfortunately, fate worked against the Blue Jackets as the puck ricocheted around the boards right to Chris Stewart, who had just gotten back up. Stewart, without much impedance from the opposition, took a shot from his own blue line, finding the back of the net, encouraging a chorus of boos from the Columbus faithful who had just watched their team's season come to an abrupt end.

The mood is decidedly sour in Ohio as the Blue Jackets missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year. GM Mackenzie still has another year left on his contract and next year will almost certainly decide his future with the organization. Can this team put itself in a position to compete in the playoffs next year or will it be another disappointing season in which the team falls a couple inches short of their goal?

The Blue Jackets own the 12th overall selection in the upcoming draft. The players currently ranked 10-15 according to International Scouting Services are: Goalie Harvey van Riemsdyk of Edmonton, Goalie Riley Verdino of US NTDP, Center Stu Battaglia of Regina, Right Wing Calle Seidenberg of Lulea HF, Left Wing Jerome Deslauriers of Gatineau, and Left Wing Maxim Lopatin of Ukraine.

Another missed playoffs and something had need to be done, a change of mentality and hierarchy in the looker-room Fedorov told the press. I and Slava talked about the situation where we have an elite-goalie who's aging along with two younger goaltender's who needs to play in the NHL to improve, therefore we took the decision on letting Ryan Miller go so that we instead could extend with up-and-comer Nathan Gerbe with the money he wanted. We also have a lot of room for bigger contracts in the future as some of the youngsters will improve. In the long-term we will be competitive, we are just not there yet said Fedorov.

We were going to take the best player available in the draft, as we picked at 11th we hade qiuet a few to choose from. We ended up taking a Ukrainian left winger, Oleg Zikov who is a really big player but still is very fast, exactly what the team needed Kozlov said to the press. In the second round the scouts have done a great job at already having a pick chosen, it was 20 year old american defender Brendan Brust whose offensive skills is already at NHL-level and can already jump into the NHL. Other than that it was a pretty bad draft with few other good prospects in the later rounds, only a grinder named Yakubowski could crack the NHL i believe.

Summary of the draft-picks made by the Sabres

Drafted

Name

Age

Country

Position

Role

Overall

Potential

1 (11)

Oleg Zikov

19

Ukraine

Left Wing

PLY

61

3 stars

2 (41)

Brendan Brust

20

USA

Defender

OFD

76

3 1/2

3 (71)

Jaimen Yakubowski

20

Canda

Left Wing

GRN

62

2 1/2

4 (101)

Kai Joensuu

19

Finland

Defender

DFD

57

2 1/2

5 (131)

Dakota Conroy

20

Canada

Right Wing

SNP

54

2 1/2

6 (161)

Kasperi Kapanen

18

Finland

Left Wing

TWF

52

2 1/2

7 (192)

Nikolai Goldobin

18

Russia

Right Wing

PLY

55

2 1/2

As per contracts i already told you about Ryan Miller leaving. But other than that Steve Ott, Jacob Lagace and Kevin Porter didn't get extended aswell as Andrei Makarov and Ville Leino got bought-out. Vanek got a nice extension aswell as Nathan Gerbe who has really improved after his near-ppg season, a well deserved contract. I still can get Tyler Ennis cheap and therefore took that chance aswell as with Tropp, Foligno and Hackett. We are well under the cap-hit and Fedorov want it to stay that way until they have fully developed.

Buffalo Contracts heading into the 2014-15 season

PLAYER

CAP HIT

Length

Status this season

Nathan Gerbe

$6.315M

6 years

NHL

Tyler Myers

$5.825M

5 years

NHL

Thomas Vanek

$4.480M

3 years

NHL

Alex Biega

$4.360M

2 years

NHL

Drew Stafford

$4.255M

1 year

NHL

Christian Ehrhoff

$4.255M

6 years

NHL

Mike Weber

$3.040M

3 years

NHL

Andrej Sekera

$2.950M

1 year

NHL

Tyler Ennis

$2.535M

3 years

NHL

Matt Hackett

$2.410M

3 years

NHL

Cody Hodgson

$2.260M

2 years

NHL

Mikhail Grigorenko

$1.930M

1 year

NHL

Corey Tropp

$1.615M

2 years

NHL

Jhonas Enroth

$1.395M

2 years

NHL

Zemgus Girgenons

$1.400M

1 year

AHL

Patrick Kaleta

$1.380M

1 year

NHL

Joel Armia

$1.275M

1 year

AHL

Marcus Foligno

$1.235M

3 years

NHL

Luke Adam

$1.070M

1 year

NHL

Brendan Brust

$1.040M

3 years

NHL

Cody McCormick

$1.025M

2 years

NHL

John Scott

$1.015M

2 years

NHL

Kevin Sundher

$0.985M

1 year

NHL

Johan Larsson

$0.985M

1 year

NHL

Logan Nelson

$0.895M

3 years

AHL

Brayden McNabb

$0.875M

2 years

AHL

Jeremy Gauthier-Leduc

$0.870M

1 year

AHL

Mark Pysyk

$0.870M

1 year

AHL

Daniel Catenacci

$0.800M

2 years

AHL

Adam Pardy

$0.795M

1 year

NHL

Nick Crawford

$0.695M

1 year

AHL

Alex Lepkowski

$0.655M

2 years

AHL

Anthony Duclair

$0.640M

3 years

Juniors

Richard Ullberg

$0.605M

3 years

AHL

Sergei Tolchinsky

$0.585M

3 years

Juniors

Shawn Szydlowski

$0.575M

1 year

AHL

Jaimen Yakubowski

$0.575M

3 years

AHL

Nathan Lieuwen

$0.570M

1 years

AHL

Oleg Zikov

$0.550M

3 years

AHL

Brady Austin

$0.525M

3 years

AHL

Shayne Rover

$0.525M

2 years

AHL

Geordie Maguire

$0.525M

3 years

Juniors

Juuso Ikonen

$0.525M

2 years

AHL

Player not in the organisation anymore

Name

Status

New Team

Ryan Miller

Unsigned

Nashville Predators

Andrei Makarov

Bought Out

Free Agent

Jacob Lagace

Bought Out

Free Agent

Steve Out

Unsigned

Tampa Bay Lightning

Kevin Porter

Unsigned

New York Rangers

Matt Mackenzie

Unsigned

Free Agent

Justin Kea

Unsigned

Free Agent

Matt Ellis

Bought Out

Free Agent

Ville Leino

Bought Out

Vancouver Canucks

I was under the cap-floor so the wages became adjusted and therefore you see a little increase in every NHL-player's salary compared to last season. Nathan Gerbe is the best paid player, who would have thought that? Extremely happy that i finally got the player's down to a more manageable level of 43 instead of 45, we got some spare players that i will let go of when i get more talented ones but it's okay for now as i want the AHL-team to stay competitive so that the youngsters can score goals and try win the championship.

The goal for this season is to get 38 wins and a playoff-spot. Fedorov and Kozlov has two season of dissappointment in the owners eyes and it's the last contract-year so the duo will be going into the season with the blade against the throat.

Love your team's defense by the way. If you had a superstar forward I think that could be a playoff team.

I've seen worse. One time in my GM Connected league, a guy picked a 2.5 red star prospect with the 9th overall pick. Worst thing was that he was 20 years old and 59 OVR, too After that, he swore he'd never let the AI set his draft priority list again

I've seen worse. One time in my GM Connected league, a guy picked a 2.5 red star prospect with the 9th overall pick. Worst thing was that he was 20 years old and 59 OVR, too After that, he swore he'd never let the AI set his draft priority list again

Holy crap, that's terrible.

I'll have an update or two (maybe even three) on my Panthers later today...

When Aaron Ekblad was drafted 3rd overall by the Florida Panthers in 2014, many expected him to crack their lineup right away. He was regarded as NHL-ready, or at least close to it, and has the potential to be a franchise defenseman. It was surprising to most when he was sent back to the OHL, to play another season with the Barrie Colts. Panthers fans were disappointed, but of course no one had any problem with it after the Panthers won the 2015 Stanley Cup.

Now heading into the 2015-16 season as the defending Stanley Cup Champions, Florida is welcoming three rookies into its lineup. Ekblad is one of them, and the other two are left-winger Eric Rinaldo and backup goaltender Chris Carrozzi. Three players were removed from the Panthers organization to make room: LW Tomas Fleischmann was released to free agency, D TJ Brennan was traded to Vancouver for a 2016 first round pick, and G Brian Elliott was traded to Edmonton for a 2nd round pick and a 3rd round pick, both in 2016. Sean Bergenheim was also released to free agency, but Tomas Kopecky has returned from the AHL to fill his spot.

You probably don't know anything about Eric Rinaldo yet. He was taken 30th overall by the Panthers this last summer, and is 20 years old. His specialties are his deadly wrist shot, and killing penalties. Chris Carrozzi, the Panthers' new backup goaltender, was selected in the 6th round by Atlanta is 2008. He was released to free agency by Winnipeg two summers ago, and was picked up by Florida. He spent the past two seasons as the starting goaltender for the San Antonio Rampage.

Once again we misses the playoffs, mainly due to too little goal and too much goal let in. It will get better next year as the young team will develop, especially the two young goaltenders. Gerbe had a great season though, aswell as Tyler Ennis who yet again reached 30 goals. The biggest dissappointment was Drew Stafford with only 20-isch points in the season as a second-liner, he will be gone after the season Fedorov stated.

Rochester had an equally bad year finishing far away from the playoffs with a seriously bad record. The newly drafted Ukrainian Oleg Zikov had a great year though, with 32 points and 12 goals as a second-liner. Although the best player on the team was Logan Nelson, who will be competing for a NHL-spot next year i believe.

Sabres Stats

Player

Games

Goals

Assists

Points

Nathan Gerbe

82

19

41

60

Tyler Ennis

82

33

22

55

Cody Hodgson

73

18

30

48

Christian Ehrhoff

82

7

40

47

Thomas Vanek

76

24

22

46

Tyler Myers

80

8

32

40

Mikhail Grigorenko

77

19

17

36

Johan Larsson

82

16

15

31

Drew Stafford

82

9

19

28

Andrej Sekera

73

2

26

28

Kevin Sundher

82

6

20

26

Brendan Brust

76

4

16

20

Corey Tropp

82

10

6

16

Patrick Kaleta

82

10

6

16

Luke Adam

82

4

9

13

Mike Weber

73

1

11

12

Alex Biega

79

4

8

12

Marcus Foligno

77

5

7

12

Cody McCormick

24

2

3

5

Nick Crawford

5

0

4

4

Adam Pardy

14

1

0

1

Brayden McNabb

6

0

0

0

John Scott

3

0

0

0

Mark Pysyk

2

0

0

0

Name

Games

Wins

Goals let in per game

Save%

Shutouts

Jhonas Enroth

44

16

2.43

91.35%

3

Matt Hackett

43

20

2.58

90.87%

2

A little bit dissappointed in Gerbe's season as a firstliner, especially after last season's rate of points he put up. But still, 60 points is the highest in Buffalo the last three years and it's always something. Johan Larsson had a great first year in NHL and Buffalo. One who didn't have that was Drew Stafford making only 28 points which was considerably lower than his linemates Vanek-Ennis, strange. Another one who had a bad year was Marcus Foligno who couldn't put up the points needed. But Fedorov told the press when the question came up that Foligno is still in the plans for the club but maybe a change of enviroment or linemates will be made next season. One the russian duo were really satisfyed with was rookie Brendan Brust and they claimed he would probably be a future fan-favourite in the arena.

The Cup went to Disneyland this year as Anaheim Mighty Ducks went as seven seeded into the playoffs and made it to the finals where they won over New York Islanders in game 7. The President's trophy was won by last year's winners Minnesota Wild but they were knocked out in the second round by Anaheim. The Art Ross Trophy was won by Blackhawk's winger Marian Hossa with all-time low 86 points, he although also won the Hart Memorial as the Season's MVP. The Maurice Richard trophy was yet again won by Capital's russian winger Alexander Ovechkin making it his third in a row. The best defender was LA's Drew Doughty and the best rookie was Winnipeg's Jason Gregoire. The best player in the playoff's was Anaheim's Viktor Fasth continuing with the streak of the winning goaltender's being the playoff's MVP. He didn't win the Vezina Trophy as the best goaltender though, that one went to San Jose's Alex Stalock. Pavel Datsyuk won yet again the Selke Trophy.

The organisation decided to give Sergei Fedorov an extension by 4 years to continue on the given path to become a contending team. Fedorov then gave Kozlov a contract aswell as he still believes in his former teammate.

Jonathan Huberdeau set a career high in points and led the league
in assists this year.

Last season, after the Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup as the 8th seed, everyone wondered if they could continue their strong play into the 2015-16 season. They did, and finished the season with 103 points (50-29-3). This ranked them 4th in the Eastern Conference. They had the 3rd most points in the East, but Tampa Bay won the Southeast division with 104 points.

This matches the Panthers up against the Carolina Hurricanes in round one. The Hurricanes finished with 99 points. In the 2012-13 season, the Panthers (as the 8th seed) upset the Hurricanes (the 1st seed) in seven games in the first round.

There were lots of great story-lines for Florida this season. Jonathan Huberdeau had a breakout year, leading the league in assists with 61. He scored 24 goals, placing him 3rd in league scoring. Only Henrik Zetterberg (88 pts), and Jason Spezza/Phil Kessel (86 pts) were able to best Huberdeau's 85 points. After four straight seasons of breaking 30 goals to start his career, Bobby Ryan went into a slump of three straight seasons without reaching 30 goals. However, in his first full season with the Panthers this year, Ryan racked up 33 goals. He ranked second on the team in points with 62. Just one points behind Ryan was Nick Bjugstad, who broke the 60 point mark for the first time in his career (61 points). He played most of the year on the second line with Jesse Joensuu and Kris Versteeg.

Another story-line of the season for the Panthers was the rookie campaign of defenseman Aaron Ekblad. Ekblad scored 14 goals and 27 assists, for 41 points. His 41 points put him atop the rookie scoring list, and his +16 was the best plus/minus rating among all rookies. He also logged the most minutes of all rookies, playing about 26 minutes per game. Ekblad is considered the front-runner for the Calder Memorial Trophy.

An even worse season than the previous two and still Fedorov were given an extension for four years and the long-term plan to be competitive around that moment has already started with picking high in the draft for a forward who can push the Sabres over the edge.

The draft was fairly weak this season with a lot of 3 1/2 star and 4 star-potential players high ranked in the first round. It was especially a heavy goaltender year but i got Enroth, Hackett and the Ullberg in the AHL so a goalie wasn't the biggest problem Fedorov said to the media after the draft. You can believe we once again went after a russian/ukrainian because of his name but actually this we drafted sixth overall is swizz and his name is Bob Yashin a 1.91 meter, 108.1 kg powerforward with an exceptional skill with the stick, he could be the next Brendan Shanahan if we're lucky Fedorov stated. Also an interesting big defenseman named Raphaël Maheux was drafted in the second round, strange that the two former forwards have a better eye for defensemen than forwards.

Summary of the draft-picks made by the Sabres in the 2015-draft

Drafted

Name

Age

Country

Position

Role

Overall

Potential

1 (6)

Bob Yashin

20

Switzerland

Left Wing

PWF

72

4

2 (36)

Raphaël Maheux

19

Canada

Defender

TWD

54

3 1/2

3 (66)

Clark Bishop

19

Canda

Center

PLY

49

3 1/2

4 (96)

Danny Vanderwiel

20

USA

Left Wing

TWF

55

2 1/2

5 (126)

Jason Fram

20

Canada

Defender

OFD

55

2 1/2

6 (156)

Robbie Fabbri

19

Canada

Center

PLY

51

2 1/2

7 (186)

Travis Wood

19

USA

Left Wing

PLY

50

2 1/2

The only really big change, contract-wise is that Stafford left as he underperformed last season and we got some new guys i want to give a shot at the NHL. Therefore we once again got under the cap-floor and the league will adjust the contracts. I managed to sign Ennis, Grigorenko and Girgensons to fairly cheap contracts for some years so by three years i believe we still can have a really good team but also have a low cap-hit. What's important is that the forwards we have been drafting in Duclair, Zikov and especially Yashin is starting to progress like they should. Because now we have a real firstline center in Hodgson and Ennis will be there soon, and somehow we could have a really stacked offense in a couple of seasons.

Buffalo Contracts heading into the 2015-16 season

PLAYER

CAP HIT

Length

Status this season

Nathan Gerbe

$6.665M

5 years

NHL

Tyler Myers

$6.155M

4 years

NHL

Andrej Sekera

$5.295M

4 years

NHL

Thomas Vanek

$4.750M

2 years

NHL

Alex Biega

$4.625M

1 year

NHL

Christian Ehrhoff

$4.515M

6 years

NHL

Mike Weber

$3.245M

2 years

NHL

Tyler Ennis

$2.720M

2 years

NHL

Kevin Sundher

$2.710M

2 years

NHL

Matt Hackett

$2.590M

2 years

NHL

Cody Hodgson

$2.430M

1 year

NHL

Luke Adam

$1.990M

3 years

NHL

Corey Tropp

$1.760M

1 year

NHL

Jhonas Enroth

$1.670M

1 year

NHL

Marcus Foligno

$1.360M

2 years

NHL

Johan Larsson

$1.290M

3 years

NHL

Brendan Brust

$1.160M

2 years

NHL

Mikhail Grigorenko

$1.150M

3 years

NHL

John Scott

$1.130M

1 year

NHL

Nick Crawford

$1.130M

2 years

AHL

Patrick Kaleta

$1.040M

1 year

NHL

Cody McCormick

$1.025M

1 year

AHL

Logan Nelson

$1.005M

2 years

NHL

Brayden McNabb

$0.985M

1 year

NHL

Bob Yashin

$0.955M

3 years

NHL

Mark Pysyk

$0.925M

2 years

AHL

Daniel Catenacci

$0.800M

1 year

AHL

Zemgus Girgensons

$0.790M

3 years

AHL

Adam Pardy

$0.770M

1 year

AHL

Joel Armia

$0.750M

2 years

AHL

Jeremy Gauthier-Leduc

$0.720M

2 years

AHL

Shawn Szydlowski

$0.695M

1 year

AHL

Alex Lepkowski

$0.655M

1 year

AHL

Anthony Duclair

$0.640M

3 years

AHL

Nathan Lieuwen

$0.630M

1 year

AHL

Richard Ullberg

$0.605M

2 years

AHL

Sergei Tolchinsky

$0.585M

3 years

AHL

Jaimen Yakubowski

$0.575M

2 years

AHL

Oleg Zikov

$0.550M

2 years

AHL

Brady Austin

$0.525M

2 years

AHL

Shayne Rover

$0.525M

1 years

AHL

Geordie Maguire

$0.525M

3 years

AHL

Juuso Ikonen

$0.525M

1 year

AHL

Clark Bishop

$0.525M

3 years

Juniors

Raphaël Maheux

$0.525M

3 years

Juniors

Player not in the organisation anymore

Name

Status

New Team

Drew Stafford

Unsigned

Edmonton Oilers

Anton Cederholm

Unsigned

Free Agent

The team is starting to come together, i like it more and more with all the talent playing the heavy minutes in the AHL a long with the organisations bigger talents playing in the NHL. Especially the defensive core seems excellent as we don't have room for neither McNabb or Crawford and still we have youngster like Pysyk and Gauthier-Leduc who is going to compete for a spot in 1-2 seasons. A luxury problem.